Nathaniel

The name is borne by several figures in the Hebrew Scriptures, including a son of Jesse and the brother of King David, and most notably by Nathanael of Cana in the Gospel of John, traditionally identified with the apostle Bartholomew.

Jesus greets him with the famous line, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit.” The apostle’s feast day, August 24, is shared across Eastern and Western Christianity.

The name became a Puritan favorite in the 17th century, carried to the New England colonies by families seeking biblical names untainted by later ecclesiastical association.

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), descendant of Salem judges and author of The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, and Young Goodman Brown, made the name synonymous with the moral imagination of American Romanticism.

The Revolutionary War general Nathanael Greene commanded the southern theater under Washington and is honored by the city of Greensboro, North Carolina. Nat Turner, born Nathaniel in 1800, led the most consequential slave rebellion in US history.

Nathaniel has appeared in US Social Security records continuously since 1880. After a long mid-century plateau it climbed steadily from the 1970s onward, peaking at No. 50 in 2009.

By 2024 it sat near the top 100, retaining its place as a stately three-syllable classic with a friendly built-in nickname (Nate). The name is also well established in England, Wales, Canada, and Australia.

Contemporary bearers include the singer-songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff, the British physicist Sir Nathaniel Bowditch, and the actor Nathaniel Buzolic.

The name balances biblical depth, Puritan pedigree, and the distinctly American literary weight of the Salem novelist who turned its bearer into a permanent fixture of the high school syllabus.